Christian Reading

Even More Marvelous

By March Villareal

We are often impressed with the prospect or thought of
experiencing a miracle. I have no doubt miracles still happen
today since we serve a God who is powerful and who hears the
prayers of His people. Not to trivialize or minimize the
awesomeness of God's miraculous hand, especially to those who
has experienced them first hand, but I would like to take a
brief glance at something, that I believe, after close
consideration, is even more amazing.

If God truly answers prayers, which I fully believe He does,
then we can see, even more than before, the unlimited power &
foreknowledge of God. In this light, it's even more marvelous
when he answers prayers without a miracle than with one. What do
I mean? The bible says that we serve an awesome God and that
nothing is impossible to Him. Biblical and even secular history
is riddled with accounts where God parted seas, raised the dead,
and brought victory to the weak. The characteristic of a miracle
is that it happens "now". What I mean by "now" is that it is
taking place in present. It is a break in time & space where
almighty God interrupts the daily course of our lives & our
reality to deliver something miraculous- of course this is
amazing and every time it happens we stand at awe of His
omnipotence. But imagine how God answers prayers without a
miracle. Think of what is involved in that. It's a multiple
chain of events, all unrelated to each other, that all
intersects at one point, all of which can be traced to the very
creation of the world. The specificity involved, the factors
that must be taken in account- it's amazing since any one
particular event in time works out that way because of the
innumerable other events that influenced its course along the
way. For example: a doctor was at the scene of an accident which
led to the saving of many lives. Imagine the events that played
a role in causing just simply the doctor & the accident
happening in the same time & place. If God determines this as an
answered prayer, just imagine the foreknowledge and power that
had to be exercised to make all that happen. He had to have
known fully from the beginning of time that the accident will
happen and He had to be powerful enough & aware enough to
influence the correct sets of events with the correct intensity
of his power to determine the end result- which he purposely
designed to show one of his prayerful children that he hears &
acts on their requests.

Let's simplify this with a humorous example from my own
experiences. One day I happened to walk under a tree where I was
surprised by a soft thud on my head. I looked and saw that it
was a little toy of some kind that was obviously thrown and had
gotten stuck in the tree. I just happened to walk under the tree
when it fell. Imagine what it took to get that toy to fall
squarely on my head at the exact moment that I walked under that
tree. Let's first look at me: I had to be walking that exact
day, that exact time, that exact speed and that exact path.
Think of all the circumstances that influenced all those things
to happen in that very exact manner. Now let's look at the toy:
the thrower had to be standing at a specific spot, throwing with
a specific force in his arm, with a specific angle in his throw.
The toy had to have weighed a certain weight to fly and get
stuck the way it did for that long. Finally, the Tree: the tree
had to, first and foremost, be there- weather planted or by
natural placement. It needed to grow to an exact height, with
the exact density of its branches that allowed the toy to get
stuck, if only temporarily. The wind, rain, or whatever had to
have influenced the tree somehow to cause the toy to slip
through at the moment that it did. Now translate that kind of
detail to human history and see if it doesn't blow your mind.

It's true that the "toy" example was a little drawn out. (I
could've named more factors, but I think it would've gotten a
little annoying). But I believe it is a simple example of the
complexity of the intertwined events & circumstances that God
orchestrates in order for HIM to answer our prayers. I'm sure
that you can realize how impossibly complicated and difficult it
is when you take in account all the coordination and
orchestration needed to answer all the prayers of all the
Christians in the entire world. That is why one song says,
"daily I discover you, and daily you amaze".

Mathew 6:8 says that God knows our prayers before we even ask
them. When we begin to understand what is involved in the
answering of those prayers, we become truly appreciative that He
knows our prayers before we utter them. He not only knew them a
few seconds before you said it, but in his Omniscience, he's
always known it- imagine that. There is no doubt that miraculous
signs and wonders are amazing to see and experience. But it is
not the only thing that should be causing us to marvel. The
simplest answered prayer is a demonstration of the unlimited
knowledge & power of our God. His marvelous hand and mind is
continually working on our behalf. We can even venture to say
that God is working on our future prayers now. To me, that is
even more marvelous that a miracle.

March M. Villareal is a Christian who just happens to like
to write.
www.manswicked.com